A Guide to Risk Assessment of Violent and Abusive Behaviour
A guide for NASUWT members
Health and safety
Violence and Abuse – Risk Assessment
Introduction
The purpose of this guide is to:
- explain the legal duties on employers in relation to violence and abusive behaviour against staff;
- to outline the procedures that should be used by schools and colleges to tackle the problem; and
- to advise members on the actions that they should take.
Although most schools and colleges remain relatively safe and secure, the working lives of teachers, headteachers and other members of the school workforce are affected by a minority of pupils who challenge authority and behave disruptively, using threatening behaviour, abusive language and sometimes physical violence.
Schools and colleges often have difficulty seeking the external support needed to handle such behaviour. Disruptive or violent pupils take up a considerable amount of staff and management time, increasing stress and workload and distracting teachers from focusing on other pupils.
Some schools and colleges have been reluctant to impose the necessary sanctions of permanent or temporary exclusion to tackle such behaviour, particularly in relation to low-level disruption or verbal abuse. In some schools and colleges where appropriate action has been taken by school management, some governing bodies and Independent Appeals Panels have reversed these decisions.
The responsibilities of employers and governing bodies
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978, employers carry the major responsibility “to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of…employees”. These pieces of legislation also signpost the consultation and co-operation with Health and Safety Representatives needed to achieve that aim.
Although health and safety tasks may be delegated to line management and employees competent to carry them out, the responsibility itself remains with the employer, defined as follows:
- in community and voluntary controlled schools in Great Britain, the employer is the local authority (LA);
- in academies, voluntary aided and foundation schools, the trust or governing body/board is the employer;
- in sixth-form, tertiary and further education colleges, it will be the governing body/board or the trustees;
- in Northern Ireland, the employer in a controlled school is the education and library board (ELB);
- in a maintained school, it is the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS);
- in a voluntary grammar school, a grant maintained integrated school and in a further education college, the employer is the governing body, which has a corporate responsibility;
- in independent schools throughout the UK, the employer may be the governing body/board, trustees or the proprietor.
Those who “have to any extent control of premises” – i.e. those governing bodies in schools or colleges where the employer is the authority or the headteacher – also have the responsibility of managing health and safety on a daily basis. It is crucial that the head and governing body liaise closely on all issues that relate to health, safety and welfare.
The NASUWT Position
The NASUWT has always taken a firm stance on pupil discipline because pupils cannot learn and teachers cannot teach in an atmosphere of violence and disruption, and to protect the safety and wellbeing of its members. The NASUWT does not hesitate to ballot for a ‘refusal to teach’ in circumstances where schools and Independent Appeals Panels fail to have due regard for the health and safety of members. In 2003, the Union achieved a landmark legal victory in the House of Lords securing the right of teachers with the support of their union to refuse to teach violent and disruptive pupils. The NASUWT as a member of the School Security Working Party has worked with the Government on developing measures to improve school security and is a member of the Ministerial Stakeholder Group on Pupil Behaviour and Discipline.
Research and Data
The Union has commissioned extensive research on pupil indiscipline. In 2002, Perpetuity Research and Consultancy International (PRCI) Ltd undertook an independent research study for the NASUWT into Violence and Indiscipline in Schools. Snapshot surveys in England conducted by the NASUWT, for example in the North West Region in 2003, in the Eastern Region in 2004 and the South West Region in 2005, have also shown that violence to and verbal abuse of teachers is common. A survey into teachers’ working conditions in Wales, undertaken by the NASUWT in 2005, identified pupil behaviour as the major cause of excessive workload and stress.
In 2006, the NASUWT’s Advancing Health and Safety Report surveyed over 5,000 teachers and found that 67% had been subjected to bullying or harassment in the previous two years, with 65% of the incidents caused by pupils.
In Scotland in October 2006, the NASUWT as part of the Discipline Stakeholder Group – made up of the Scottish Executive, teaching unions, the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, General Teaching Council for Scotland and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities – signed up to a joint action plan designed to continue tackling indiscipline in Scottish schools.
Definition of ‘Violence’
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines work-related violence as:
any situation where a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work.
Such circumstances include any work-related activity, whether on school/college premises or off-site. A pupil, colleague or member of the public could be responsible. Physical force, verbal abuse or threats, including prejudice-related incidents, and damage to property are all forms of violence.
Health and safety legislation provides that schools and colleges should have strategies to address, prevent and deal with verbal and physical abuse, both of which are covered by the Health and Safety Executive’s definitions of violence.
Risk Assessment
The Management of Health and Safety Regulations (1999) ((2000) in Northern Ireland) placed a duty on employers, through the risk assessment processes, to examine workplace hazards, identify those at risk and take measures to control those risks.
Risk assessment can be applied to individual pupils or adults and is a complex but necessary process. The conduct of risk assessment is fundamental to the management of a safe workplace. A risk assessment identifies the hazards, e.g. features of a pupil’s violent or aggressive behaviour such as kicking or biting, the people who might be harmed, and sets out actions to be taken to prevent such harm.
The five-step approach to risk assessment recommended by the Health and Safety Executive as a generic tool is essential to the control of all risk situations. It can be applied to behavioural problems in all educational settings, including specialist establishments, where extremely violent young persons may be taught.
The process includes the following steps:
- identification of problems;
- identification of those at risk;
- evaluation of the risks and responses to them;
- recording of findings and proposals;
- monitoring, evaluation and review of processes on a regular basis.
Employers have ultimate responsibility for health and safety. Headteachers, principals and heads of centres are usually responsible for the day-to-day discharge of the employers’ health and safety functions and should reach agreement with NASUWT Health and Safety Representatives on simple-to-use risk assessment procedures.
A systematic approach to tackling a problem should involve:
- an analysis of the problem;
- gathering of information;
- a plan of action.
Help for Individual Members
An individual member who has been subjected to, or threatened by, violence or abuse should seek the help of the NASUWT Representative, who in turn may seek advice from their Local Association Secretary or Regional or National Centre. If there is no NASUWT Representative on site, the member should contact the Regional or National Centre.
Reporting
Members should report all instances of threatening or violent behaviour, using the school or college procedure. Members working in other settings should ask their managers or heads of centres, etc. for the appropriate documents. They should also make their own careful notes while events are still fresh. Members should always seek the assistance of their Health and Safety Representative or Union Representative in doing this – if there is no Representative, the NASUWT Regional or National Centre should be contacted.
Education employers are required under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (1995) (RIDDOR) (RIDDOR (Northern Ireland) 1997) to record all incidents of violence and report them to the Health and Safety Executive. This means that all schools and colleges must have a reporting procedure, for which the headteacher or principal has day-to-day responsibility. Members subjected to violent or abusive incidents should check that the RIDDOR requirements have been met.
Where the local authority is the employer its safety committees should regularly review the statistical reports and examine and respond to any patterns of violence. Where the employer is the school or college governing body, the same review process should be undertaken by the governing body or school/college safety committee. Therefore, it is important that members report all such incidents.
All cases of actual violence must also be reported by the school/college to the police. If the school/college is reluctant to do this, the NASUWT Representative should seek advice from the NASUWT Local Association Secretary or Regional or National Centre.
Alternative educational providers and settings (Pupil Referral Units, etc.)
In addition to both mainstream and special educational needs (SEN) settings, many NASUWT members work in off-site or alternative provision, including those where pupils with behavioural difficulties are taught. The Union’s position in respect of members working in such settings is clear: there should be zero tolerance of violent and abusive behaviour. Teachers in a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) or similar environment are entitled to precisely the same healthy and safe working environment as colleagues in any other school or college.
Further Information
For details of NASUWT publications and behaviour management courses offered to members, contact your Regional or National Centre or Headquarters or visit the Union’s website: www.teachersunion.org.uk.
NASUWT
Hillscourt Education Centre
Rose Hill, Rednal
Birmingham B45 8RS
Tel: 0121 453 6150
Fax: 0121 457 6208
E-mail: nasuwt@mail.nasuwt.org.uk
The NASUWT Health and Safety Representatives’ Handbook contains useful advice on violence and how to respond to it.
08/06009
